Fire me up

why'd it have to be him?

"dude! that went so well" sapnap exclaimed, shifting on his feet as he wiped beads of sweat from his forehead looking towards karl to gauge the brunettes reaction.

karl smiled back at the others excitement nodding in agreement. "we should play it live tomorrow, i'll write down the music n give it to everyone" karl hummed quickly typing away at his phone, writing down every detail from the song karl and sapnap had previously wrote.

sapnap stood awkwardly as the whirring of the printer could be heard, he watched as karl walked over, taking a few sheets of paper handing a singular sheet to karl "for quackity" karl mumbled, quickly returning to his cocky self "since you're like in love or something"

sapnap raised an eyebrow at karl, the boy had gone from playing along with sapnap, being friendly, to instantly switching back to his nasty persona. sapnap huffed taking it from karl's hands with a roll of his eyes "someone's jealous, huh?"

karl frowned glaring at sapnap, ignoring the way the words burned him. he turned on his heel heading towards the door "fuck you sappy nappy!" he yelled back to sapnap before heading off down the hall, leaving a fuming and quite frankly confused sapnap, alone in the practice room.

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the two hadn't spoken since then, every time quackity tried to force the two boys to talk he was instantly shut down by some stupid remark from karl.

dream took his place on stage, fiddling with the singular braid in his hair, smiling at george who grinned back, plugging his bass into the amp. quackity fiddled with his guitar strap as he signalled to sapnap saying he was ready, turning to face the crowd that he'd missed, thankful for skeppys opportunity.

karl stood next to dream gripping taking his mic out of the mic stand, smiling kindly at the blonde, who smiled back.

sapnap scowled, aware no one could see him. he hated karl, he wanted to be the one karl smiled at but no, it was dream, he wanted to know what the brunettes problem was with him, he'd ask him about it after the performance for sure.

sapnap opened the song with george, who played the repetitive riff over the top of his drums. eventually quackity came in, shredding the chords on his guitar, causing the crowd to cheer, sapnap loosing up slightly.

"why'd it have to be him, i'd say you let me down" karl sang, causing dream and sapnap to look over at him, he'd changed the words.

originally karl had sang about a girl, sapnap remembering it vividly as he was there when the song was formed. it didn't take long for dream to catch up with karl, the change of words nothing too hard to remember.

"have you ever been, ever been with a guy like that?" karl and dream sang in perfect harmony, dream striding over to george as the two danced together during the instrumental section. karl grinned at the two giving george a small thumbs up. quackity looked over at karl who raised an eyebrow, looking back at the other.

sapnap watched the encounter, his face blank as the brunette headed over to quackity placing the mic between the twos mouths as quackity caught his drift, singing in harmony with karl.

"was it when you looked at him? was it because he thought he could be, much more then i've ever been." karl looked over to sapnap as he sang, his forehead still pressed against quackitys who was simultaneously singing and playing, his painted finger gliding across the strings flawlessly.

sapnap couldn't help it when he let his drums drop out completely, dream looking over at him as he tried to save the song quickly heading back to centre stage, along with karl, as the two sang the final lines, even with the lack of drums.

"why'd it have to be him? i'd say you let me down, but we've been here before, it's come back around"

the crowd cheered, george lighting up as he quickly placed his guitar in its holder, heading to the centre stage to meet dream and karl, quackity doing the same. the three all joining in a group hug in celebration, knowing there was no way they wouldn't advance to the semi-finals.

sapnap stayed seated on his drum stool, watching the sight in front of him, his heart dropping as he watched his band members collectively celebrate without him, in front of an audience.

to save him self from further embarrassment, the raven haired boy quickly exited the stage, karl's eyes following him the whole way.

sapnap didn't look back as he stormed off to the bus, his legs and hands shaking, he felt tears welling in his eyes as he placed his hand against the door handle sliding it open. it wasn't until the bus door closed behind him did he let out a sob, shakily walking over to his room flopping down onto his bed.

fuck karl jacobs, he thought, as he reflected on how happy dream looked with his new found friends, how quackity disregarded everything sapnap had spilled to him late night just for a hug.

he clenched his sheets until his knuckles turned white, his body shaking with every exhale as he tried to steady his breathing. he held back his tears as best as he could when he heard the bus door slide open, due to the silence, sapnap assumed it was george grabbing a jacket or something before the four went out for a 'celebratory meal' or some dumb shit.

boy was he mistaken, looking over at his room door as he heard it creak open, his eyes squinted slightly as he adjusted to the peak of light that had been let into the room. he interrogated the figure, taking in every detail, quickly realising who it was.

he sat up wiping his eyes, running a hand through his now tangled hair.

"what do you want?" sapnap spat, glaring at the figure, who took a few steps back in shock not seeing this side of sapnap before.

the figure slowly composed theirselves, slowly and cautiously walking over to sapnaps bed, taking a seat on the edge, sapnaps eyes narrowing as he watched the other.

he couldn't help it when the tears started flowing again, his pent up emotions getting the best of him. the man moved closer, tapping his shoulder, as an invite.

sapnap sniffled resting his head against the others shoulder, too tired to resist. he relaxed slightly as he felt a hand playing with strands of his hair.

"i'm sorry if i upset you sap" the familiar voice spoke softly, sapnap looking up slightly at the vulnerability of the other, not expecting the meet the others eyes.

"it's u-uh okay" sapnap mumbled sniffling again as he tried to break eye contact, to no avail. the two stared at each other, both too nervous to break the silence, it felt all too intimate for sapnap, but the other didn't make any effort to move away.

"wanna start again?" the man asked, and sapnap could practically hear the truth leaking from the others words, he nodded slowly his hand making its way into the brunettes free one.

"sure thing karlos"